The stories that we tell each other must be empowerment stories. They must cherish and celebrate who we are as mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends.

We must define ourselves in relation to each other before we are strong enough to be WOMEN for our men and other loved ones. When we are strong, our relationships are strong.

When we start defining ourselves, we won't rely on men to define us. We will be strong and therefore more capable of loving ourselves, other women, and men.

The only story I heard that totally defined women in their own right was the story of Ereshkigal and Innana. There are men in the story, but they are more there to help Innana, not control or censor her.

After doing some research, I realized that the person I heard this from the first time had taken some artistic license with the story. This story is about five Goddesses.

I have used these Sumerian Goddesses: Ereshkigal, Innana, Nammu, Nin-imma, and Lilith who lie at the beginning and the end of it all to tell my story. Ereshkigal is the Goddess of the underworld/heaven.

She is unreachable by humans and therefore has to have a go-between. The underworld/heaven is called Irkalla and sometimes this Goddess is Irkalli, much as Hades is the God of Hades.

Innana is Ereshkigal’s sister. Innana is the go-between.

She is the vessel that we sail on when we die. She takes us to her sister and helps us rid ourselves of our earthly possessions and desires.

She is the one to call upon when you want something from the Shadow/Summer lands. I like to think of the sisters as being two aspects of the same Goddess.

The light and the shadow, and when one is born so is the other. Nammu is Ereshkigal and Innana’s mother.

She gives birth and mourns death. Laughter through tears is where she resides.

She sacrifices herself for the birth of her daughter and mourns the death we all must endure. In these rituals, these stories, we will celebrate her as a strong woman who keeps it all going, and she does all this while laughing through the pain as we do, as we do as women daily.

The fourth Goddess is Nin-imma. She is the vagina Goddess.

She loves to tell jokes and funny anecdotes to Nammu hoping to make her happy so her labor won’t be so hard. If you can laugh through the pain and give birth, that child is happy because its mother is happy.

Nin-imma means Goddess-water. She is the midwife.

She is the one who helps bring the baby into the world and to the mother when the child is born. The final Goddess, but definitely not the least, is Lilith.

She is Innana’s fear and Ereshkigal’s wisdom. She is a black raven or crow and she sits and she watches and she knows.

She sees all that Innana is going through and all that she has and all that she will give up in the end. She watches everything, her eyes are everywhere, she is all crows, all ravens, all black birds.

She is black as the night and as rolling storm clouds. She knows everything because she watches.

She knows everything because she is everything. She is your joy and pain, she is your light and dark representing both life and death.

Lilith is present from the moment we are born, screaming into the world, until we slip into death. She embodies the duality of our existence, like the moon and the sun, pain and pleasure.

Lilith resides in the depths of our hearts, feeding on our fears and offering wisdom in return. When in need of strength and courage, call upon her.

She has no face and awaits at the underworld gate to assist Ereshkigal in receiving the souls of the deceased. My exploration of sheology has been ongoing for many years, stemming from a lineage of spiritual practitioners.

Although some have strayed along the journey, there is magic in the losses, allowing future generations to tell their tales. Our stories intertwine to foster growth, even when faced with challenges.

Even in the darkest moments, light eventually shines through. Appendix website: https://sites.

google. com/view/thelillithbird/home.